Only the United Kingdom, one of 10 EU countries not using the euro, indicated it could not support efforts to enshrine new protocols for monitoring country’s budgets and enforcing limits on deficits.
Mark Lowen filed a report from Athens about how Greeks are coping with what Panpandreou called ‘the largest fiscal consolidation in a single year [of any eurozone member].” Andrew Walker reports on how Merkel’s support of Greece is playing in Germany.
European and Asian markets are being hammered this morning as markets react to the Federal Reserve’s warning about the weak state of the U.S. economy, and fears of another recession in the euro zone. Andrew Walker, for the BBC, has the latest.
The International Monetary Fund says the global recession is ending. In its twice-yearly assessment of the economic outlook for the world, the IMF predicts a 3.1 percent global economic growth rate.